


take it too far

by tomatocages (kittu9)



Series: you're finally here and I'm a mess [1]
Category: Elementary (TV), Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Brothers, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Jaeger Pilots, Other, Partnership, Past Drug Use, Siblings, The Drift (Pacific Rim), War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-26
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-24 16:59:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/942357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittu9/pseuds/tomatocages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marcus thought he knew about Joan Watson when Gregson announced her arrival: legendary surviving half of the Watson Jaeger team, left the PPDC after piloting the Apis Stinger back to land solo, hasn’t been heard from in at least five years. Except instead of wondering if she can still pilot a Jaeger, everyone’s wondering what’s the deal between her and Sherlock Holmes.</p><p>Or, </p><p>“You’re finally here and I’m a mess: the 'Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes are working together' story, I guess, but why are they sitting at our mess table,” as narrated by Marcus Bell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	take it too far

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Bloodbuzz Ohio," by The National.

The mess hall usually works like this: you get your food, you find a table. After five years in the PPDC, and eighteen months in the Hong Kong Shatterdome, Marcus has figured out the way everyone scatters into regimented seating assignments, even though there’s never been any formal designation for who sits where.

It breaks down something like this: the engineers crowd in close by the exit doors and share a couple of tables with the conn techs, which is practical: when there's a Kaiju reading, they need to run out of mess in a hurry, leaving their trays in a jumble behind them. Most command personnel sit towards the back of the room, away from the central din, security stakes out the tables by the entrance—fights break out when the mess is low on gochujang—and science and R&D have consented to share a bank of tables in the center of the room. They yell the most, anyway, so it kind of works.

The Jaeger pilots try not to sit near each other. This doesn't apply to co-pilots; Marcus and Andre always sit side by side, shoulders never quite touching, and Moran and his sister are the same, though Marcus can't imagine anyone wanting to sit that close to Sebastian, who's an asshole.

It gets crowded around mealtimes, though. Even with the residual funding, it's a good idea to eat fast and move on, so it's not like Marcus and Andre can always avoid sitting close to a couple breaking up or making up, or sitting across from someone from R&D right when they've got an idea. Marcus reminds himself of this fact constantly, because one of the Bell brothers has to, and Andre is not the responsible one. (He concentrates hard in that thought; it will annoy Andre the next time he and Marcus drift, and their connection is laid on a solid foundation of annoyance and love). All this to say, Marcus isn't exactly itching to spend the evening mess period sitting across from the legendary (or, if you prefer, infamous) Jaeger pilot Joan Watson. Marcus doesn't have a problem with Watson; if what people say about her is true, well, that's crazy, but so are Kaiju. Marcus knows what it’s like out there, and he can’t imagine what she felt when Apis Stinger’s conn-pod got sheared open and her co-pilot died over the drift connection.

Joan Watson hasn’t been a part of the PPDC in over five years; it makes sense she wouldn't have a place to sit now that she’s back, especially if the rumors are true and Gregson is angling for her to pilot Apis Stinger again, once they finish putting the machine’s pieces all together again.

It's Sherlock Holmes who Marcus is trying to avoid. He might be Gregson’s pet project, but the guy’s a headchanger addict who doesn't know when to quit, and it's grating, to say the least. It’s not usually an issue, that no one wants anything to do with Holmes, because the ‘dome at large is under the vague impression he doesn’t actually eat, as he’s never set food in the mess. They’ve never seen him in the mess crowd, anyway, not in the last eighteen months, and it didn’t occur to anyone that Holmes would take much notice of Watson; he usually doesn’t let anything distract him from Jaeger reconstruction.

But: the mess is full and Andre is an idiot (he's not; Watson is straight-up gorgeous, Marcus just tries to ignore that kind of thing in a co-worker), so he waves Watson over when it looks like she won't find a seat. Holmes follows her and Watson doesn't protest when he sits down in the too-small space next to her and across from Marcus.

“The Bell brothers,” she says when she sets down her tray. “Nice. I heard you guys took on the bulk of keeping our coastlines clear, this past year.” She smirks a little when she says it, and Andre laughs outright; he’s old enough to remember all the anti-pollution ads from before the war began. Marcus isn’t quite as old as that, but he feels the shiver of amused relief in Andre’s head. They don’t need another fathomless hotshot in the Jaeger corps; the Morans twins have got that covered.

“Well, we had to do something,” Andre says. “The world’s oceans are part of our legacy.” He extends a hand, and Watson takes it. “I’m Andre, the better-looking Bell brother.”

“So you keep telling yourself,” Marcus says. Watson smiles leans over to shake his hand; she has to lean into Holmes’ space to do it, but he allows for it without saying a word.

“Joan Watson,” she offers.

“Marcus,” he says. “You gonna keep an eye on our flank in this brave new world? ‘Cause all I got on the other side of me is this moron—” He shoulders Andre good-naturedly, feels Andre shove back at him—“and the Moran twins. It’s not great odds.”

"Ha," she says, leaning back towards her tray, which isn’t a sign that she’ll keep talking to him at all—Marcus can see her eyes go flat as soon as he says a word about piloting again. She picks up her chopsticks and rearranges her food, makes polite conversation with Andre: they stick to discussing the traffic coming into the dome and how nice it is to eat bread again. 

While all this is unfolding, Holmes disproves popular folklore by eating in public, steadily, staying quiet for the most part. Marcus can't stop staring. It doesn’t help that Holmes has appalling table manners.

Marcus has been drifting with Andre since they were teens. He knows how you start leaning into your co-pilot's space, how you understood the why of them. Marcus knows you don’t have to drift with someone to understand them, but Marcus didn't think that Sherlock Holmes was the sort who was capable of treating another human as worth his time. He hasn’t even undergone compatibility tests, and yet here he is, letting his elbow knock Joan Watson's as she eats her soggy helping of gai lan. He shows all the signs of having a crush or being drift-compatible, though it’s hard to tell the two apart, with non-family pilot candidates: listening to her when she speaks, asking her questions, calling her by name. As the meal progresses, it’s clear she prefers “Joan,” but Holmes calls her "Watson" more often than not, and she doesn’t seem to think it’s worth calling him out on. That’s something; Marcus refuses to think of a future where he exists and Andre does not, but if that day comes, referring to Marcus as the only representative of the Bell brothers will no doubt be a quick way to ruin his composure.

“Oi,” a rough voice cuts across the table, and Marcus is aware, uncomfortably so, that Sebastian Moran has sauntered over. He stands a little behind and to the right of Marcus, so he has a clear line of sight across the top of Marcus’ head, straight at Joan. “So what have you been doing with the last five years?” Sebastian throws the question down on the table, right in the middle of Holmes pontificating on the Hong Kong Shatterdome’s approach to Jaeger repair and improvement programs.

Joan carefully wipes her mouth before she answers, but she’s gone as suddenly still as she had when Marcus cracked his stupid joke about her coming out of retirement to watch the back of the Bells’ Jaeger.

“I’ve been following the wall,” she says, “fixing people up when I can.”

“Relief work?” Sebastian says, gruff and disdainful. Marcus can feel, on the back of his neck, that Sebastian is standing with his feet apart, his arms crossed over his chest—it’s an intimidating posture he adopts often, and no one can really say anything about it, since Sebastian and Violet Moran have the highest kill count of the surviving Jaeger pilots.

“I’m a surgeon,” Joan says, present tense.

At that, Holmes has apparently had enough—of sitting in a crowded space, of eating mess food, of being interrupted, of any perceived insult to a piloting candidate. He talks over anything else Joan might have said, or that Sebastian Moran might say next, or that the entire tabled audience might have heckled, by being an asshole. It’s Holmes’ most reliable quality, and Marcus is stupidly grateful that Holmes is willing to draw enemy fire. 

"Mr. Moran," Holmes starts, "I understand your desire to study greatness, but your enthusiasm for Ms. Watson’s work history is perhaps best focused on mending the appealing and frankly reprehensible holes you tend to leave in your Jaeger’s left flank." He sneers a little, like Sebastian’s not really worth his time, but Holmes doesn’t have anything better to do at the moment.

That’s what Marcus was expecting, when Holmes first sat down: he has a reputation for performance, all the more so when he’s making someone else feel about ten centimeters tall. That reputation is proving itself: Holmes starts sketching a diagram in the air between them, his clumsily-held chopsticks dripping with plum sauce—Marcus only notices because he’s heard it’s a symptom, with headchanger addicts: they get a twitch that doesn’t easily shake itself out. It doesn’t stop Holmes from losing control of his indoor voice and continuing, "in fact, one wonders how much a functional, government-funded sadist tends to skip over—"

“Sherlock,” Joan says, and her tone is not polite at all. Marcus thinks she might be stabbing him in the side with the blunt end of her chopsticks, but it’s hard to tell from his angle, and anyway, what she’s doing is clearly not working out so well. “Sherlock,” Joan says again, this time grabbing hold of Holmes’ ear and pinching hard until he subsides, slumping down next to her on the bench. Marcus is a little shocked at how fast the fight leaves him: that’s not how Holmes usually operates.

Joan keeps an eye on Holmes for a long second before she turns and smiles at Sebastian, dismissive, before turning her face to Andre and Marcus—and, by extension, at the gathering crowd around the table. The look on her face is tight and grim and terrifying. "Forgive my companion," she says, giving a vague name to why Holmes has been following her around like a duckling or a parasite. "He meant to be rude. He likes to give the impression he was raise by wolves, which is of course a load of horseshit."

Andre has the guts to laugh; Marcus isn't over wanting to throw up at having Sebastian in his blind spot, but he still manages a smile, hoping devoutly that the Moran twins will just walk away from the table; he can’t stand having Sebastian out of his line of sight. From the look on Joan’s face, the twins must be moving. From the way the hair on the back of Marcus’ neck is starting to settle, he isn’t in the crossfire any longer.

"It's forgiven," Marcus says, once he’s sure there’s no one standing at his shoulder, "but only 'cause I appreciate Holmes having found a moderating influence. I heard stories about you when Andre and I were in the academy, something about Apis Stinger being the ruler of the world, so I’m pretty sure you got the situation in hand."

Joan’s smile widens imperceptibly, keeping her lips closed over her teeth. To an outside observer, she looks composed and utterly polite. From the way she’s still holding on to Holmes’ ear, and the way he isn’t even fighting her, that’s the wrong impression to get.

"You might have heard wrong, when you were in the academy," is all she says. "But we'll have to wait and see."

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a MUCH LARGER Elementary/Pacific Rim fusion currently in the works. STAY TUNED, SUGAR MAPLE, and please let me know what you think!
> 
> "Headchangers," by the way, are mentioned in the tie-in novel. Extracted from the Kaiju's cerebral cortex, they can induce powerful hallucinations and out-of-body experiences.


End file.
